Tag: projects

Considering all of the projects I have going on right now, I am disappointed that it took me so long to complete these saw horses. They would have come in very handy for a handful of the things that I have already completed.

I purchased the plans for these sawhorses from woodshopdude.com for a very fair price of $5….close to 2 years ago. Maybe less but it seems like a long time ago.

I began the initial cuts for the legs and then stopped. I really don’t know why I stopped but I did.

Around the garage I moved the piles of wood until this last week when I finally had enough. Back to the plans I went. 2 hours later and I was done. Overall they turned out pretty good. They don’t look quite as nice as I had hoped but they are stable and level.

Next up is a miter saw station and throwing away the old plastic sawhorses that are being held together with rope. 🙂

The latest addition to our home. This started out as a generic frame from the store that I beat up, sanded and glazed. The backing was scrapbook paper that I printed out the chorus to “our” song onto. I am lucky enough to have a buddy that can cut vinyl letters and that is where I got the letters from. I presented my wife with this gift last night and she loved it.

Ashley has this old ladder that once belonged to her Grandmother. For awhile it sat in the corner of our room upright holding our stereo, books, and other decorations. When we moved into our new home, Ashley decided she wanted to hang it on the wall and use it as a book shelf.

A quick trip to Home Depot for some “L” brackets and a little bit of time finding some studs to screw into and we have a new book shelf! I think it turned out great and Ashley loves it too!

We finally finished the deck! To date this was the biggest project that we have tackled at our new home. It didn’t help that it was almost always 100 degrees or above everyday that we worked on it. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Here is what the deck looked like when we first moved in.

The pictures are a bit deceiving and it makes it look like the deck wasnt in that bad of shape. But up close it was easy to see plenty of wood rot amongst pretty much all of the boards. We were just going to replace the top boards but after we ripped them off, it was quite apparent that we needed to replace the supporting posts as well.

We decided to go with 5/4″ x 6″ pressure treated lumber instead of the 2″x6″ cedar that the deck currently was composed of. This was mainly a decision based on cost.

Although the deck wasn’t flimsy to begin with, we wanted to do a few things to make the deck even more secure. We accomplished this by adding some more braces between the joists (were only three braces originally). We added everything else you see in this picture.

We were also surprised to see that the original support posts were not really in concrete but rather set on the ground with a small 3 inch concrete “pad” poured around it. We ripped those out and put down Dek-Block‘s® instead. Although not as secure as a poured concrete footing, we felt it would suffice for this deck.

Once we had the new support posts installed everything else just sort of fell into place. We put down the new deck planks, installed new railings capped with solar lights, and built out new stairs. The project was a ton of work but the end result is amazing and everyone that see’s it thinks it looks amazing.

A small preview of what our basement now looks like. The entire basement is now wrapped in chair rail and has two tone paint. We also did all three of the kid’s rooms. I will be posting more details later but for now enjoy!

I know it has been awhile since I have posted. Ashley and I have been pretty busy with life. Most notably, we bought a house! We haven’t technically moved in yet but we already have a dozen or so plans in the works to paint, fix, rehab, and remodel. This is a very exciting time for us.

Below are some pictures of the house as it sits now with the current homeowners. These pictures are going to make great reference points as we begin to do our own mini house remodel. Of course I am going to be posting pictures of all the great projects that we will do with before and after shots! 🙂

A few weeks ago my wife showed me a project on Pinterest where someone took an old table, cut a few feet off the top and mounted it on the wall to make it into a desk. We were in the planning stages of a room remodel for our daughters and thought something like this would really add to both the functionality and the visual appearance of their room. So we headed out to our local Goodwill store in search of our own table to
destroyuse.

We didn’t find any good tables but we did end up finding something even better! My wife showed me the 3 drawer dresser below and although I wasnt fully convinced at first, I quickly warmed up to the idea of the challenge.

So we purchased the dresser and headed home. The first thing I did was to measure out how much of the dresser I wanted to keep. I knew that I was going to need to put a 1/2″ piece of MDF under the desk in order for the rail balusters to connect to so I measured a 1/2″ inch more than the trim piece below the top drawer. I then put some paint tape over my lines to prevent chips when I cut it with my circular saw.

Here you can see the two pieces after I made the cut. I might end up using the bottom part for another project. Maybe a nightstand?

After the dresser was cut and the two pieces separated, I set out to paint. I used a latex high gloss black paint that I applied using a foam roller. It took 3 coats before I finally achieved the look and cover I was going for. The molding on the front of the drawer was plastic attached with screws so I quickly removed it and along with the rail balusters sprayed them both with a high gloss black spray paint.

Here is a picture of the 1/2″ MDF being painted to go below the desk. I drilled two 3/4″ holes in each corner to support the rail balusters. This board will be screwed into the bottom of the desk to help hide the drawer and to add some stability.

I attached the desk to the wall using 2.5″ screws making sure to drive them into the wall studs. The rail balusters were cut to length to match the desk height and attached to the black MDF using the pre-drilled holes and then inserting the balusters into them and securing them with Gorilla glue and a wood screw.

Here are a few pictures of the finished product. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out and the girls absolutely love it.

It’s no secret that our townhouse is busting at the seams with the 2 adults and 3 kids that live there. In the past, we have gotten very creative in making due and finding ways to store things. We have also done a great job and just chucking stuff (aka donating).

One place that I have always wanted to do something was at the end of our hallway. There is a little space there beyond the girl’s room that I always thought would make a great linen closet; something that this place doesn’t have.

Finally one weekend I set out to create one. Overall it was a pretty easy and straight forward build. The toughest part of the whole thing was trying to get the texture to match up. I attempted to duplicate it using the spray can product from Lowes. It worked good but only after 3 cans. For that amount ($60) I could have purchased a hopper and sprayed it with my compressor. Oh well. Live and learn!